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Eva Longoria’s Agenda

Lately, the actress Eva Longoria has been much in the news—but not for the reasons that originally made her a household name: her role in “Desperate Housewives,” or even the ephemeral nature of her marriage to the basketball star Tony Parker. Instead, Longoria has emerged as a neophyte policy wonk, and, in February, became a “national co-chair” of President Obama’s reëlection campaign. Jim Messina, the campaign manager, told Politico that the co-chairs would be “tremendous assets on the ground as we build the biggest grassroots campaign in history,” and Longoria said that her role is to “engage and mobilize voters—specifically with the Latino community and the women’s community.” On Thursday, she revealed on “Good Morning America” that, in preparation for this new role, she has gone back to school to get a master’s degree in Mexican-American studies.

It’s not the only way she’s been schooling herself. A few months ago, when I was trailing after Trevor Neilson for a story on celebrity philanthropy, I attended an early morning meeting with Neilson and his wife, Maggie, a cofounder of Global Philanthropy Group, a firm that advises celebrities on their good works. They were preparing some talking points for a celebrity they declined to name. (Standard non-disclosure clauses in G.P.G. contracts dictate that the firm not talk about their celebrity clients.) All they would tell me was that the meeting involved “Latina issues.”

At 8:30 A.M., I took a seat in the sunny Santa Monica boardroom with Neilson, Maggie, and two staff analysts, Karina Qian and Becky Dale, who briefed the Neilsons with PowerPoint slides on statistics pertaining to Latinas in the United States.

“Latinas make fifty-nine cents for every dollar earned by non-Hispanics,” Qian said, quoting from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. “Their unemployment is 12.5 percent—fifty percent higher than the national average. Latina entrepreneurs start businesses at six times the national average.”

“It would be interesting to ask their experience of trying to get bank loans,” Trevor Neilson said.

“Hillary Clinton once said that more women’s dreams die in bank parking lots than anywhere else,” Maggie said.

“Latinas have the worst education of anyone,” Qian said.

“Who are the positive public Latina role models?” Neilson asked. “I mean, I watch a lot of Telemundo—”

“You do?” Maggie interrupted.

“Yeah, and there are not a lot of positive role models. The women are falling out of their dresses. They need a Michelle Obama. A strong woman.”

When talk turned to the need for increased education in the Latin community, Maggie said, “This ties into the Shakira work.” (The Neilsons represent the singer Shakira in her philanthropic work for education in her native country of Colombia. So I could cross Shakira off the list of celebrities for whom they were preparing this material).

“These people are the best of America!” Neilson cried. “They’re creating jobs. TARP didn’t!”

The Neilsons did not, throughout the hour-long meeting, ever accidentally let slip what celebrity they were prepping for. But as the briefing was breaking up, there was a bustle of activity in the reception area outside. The Neilsons looked at each other in slight panic—then at me. Ruefully, resolutely, they ushered me out into the reception area. Standing amid a five-person entourage was Longoria, a tiny, exotically pretty person wrapped in beige fabric. She’d arrived a little early.

“Eva!” Neilson cried. He and Maggie hastened over and executed quick hugs. I shook Longoria’s hand, trying very hard to look like the kind of friendly and trustworthy journalist whom she wouldn’t mind sitting in on their meeting. But the Neilsons let me know that wasn’t going to happen. (“It’s still very early days with Eva,” Neilson later told me.) So I watched, wistfully, as the three of them—TV star and philanthropic advisers—disappeared into the boardroom and shut the door.

But it was not too long after that, in early December, when I was electrified to see the results of that meeting come to life. It was in the still early days of the seemingly endless Republican primary, when Newt Gingrich delivered himself of the quintessentially Gingrichian view that children in poor neighborhoods “have nobody around them who works.” Longoria instantly took to Twitter and repeated, almost word for word, the statistic that I heard Becky Dale deliver to the Neilsons: “@newtgingrich you clearly know little about the Latina community,” she tweeted. “Latina entrepreneurs who start businesses at 6 times the national average.” (I phoned Longoria’s representatives to ask about the connection, but didn’t hear back.)

More recently, Longoria has been giving hell to Mitt Romney. A couple of weeks ago, she was on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports,” where she more than held her own in a serious discussion that ranged from women’s heath care to George W. Bush’s popularity with Hispanic voters in 2000 (“He was from the state of Texas, which along with California has the largest Hispanic population”) to Romney’s campaign-trail assertion, after his primary win in Puerto Rico, that Hispanic voters will come out for a conservative Republican in the general election. Longoria was having none of this: “Of all the candidates, Mitt Romney is probably the one on the wrong side of every issue pertaining to Latinos: education, the economy, health-care access.” When it comes to speaking, she clearly knows what she’s doing.